Thursday, June 22, 2006

Crashing Sucks!


Well, on Tuesday we headed to a race about 20k from the house. We drove there, just because it was a 156krace. It basically was a glorified kermis becuase it was 13 laps of a 12k circuit. The course was tricky with lots of turns and over 190 starters. We were tipped off that it was going to be splintered from the go, so we started in the front. As the gun went off, the pace was in fact blistering. I was at the front and throwing down as hard as I could. Just following everything and staying top 10 at all times. After about 10 minutes, I jumped with a group of 5 that looked promising. We went through an "S" bend turn, and on the way out of it I lost traction with my front wheel. In an instant I hit the pavement and slid into a ditch. An imediately numbness took over my left shoulder when I realized I couldn't move it. I almost couldn't breath. I laid there in the ditch until the entire field came by. When I finally sat up, "Pop," my shoulder went back into place. Wow, that was scary. My race was over. I stood up to check out my bike. It was fine. I hoped back on and limped it back to the feed zone. I had some road rash on my hip barely allowing me to pedal. It hurt with every pedal stroke.
It was short day for me, and most of the team had not such good luck either. Luckily I was the only one to crash, but Brandon McKeever was the only one to survive past 50k, making it until 3 laps to go when his group was pulled.
My shoulder is fine now, but it was pretty sore that night and the next day. Het Volk for amateurs is on the menu for me this weekend, so that will be cool. Then maybe a trip down to Spain for a stage race next week.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hope you didn't leave too much of your hide on that Belgian pavement! Hang in there and give 'em hell....

Anonymous said...

what is that extra hardware in your ear..I thought we wanted to 'lighten' the bike?

Anonymous said...

DANG. AMAZING